We recently welcomed Jay McGavren to the Treehouse teaching team as our new expert Ruby teacher. For those of you new to Ruby, it is a dynamic, open source programming language with a focus on simplicity and productivity. Jay has been a software developer for over a decade and has been involved with online developer training since 2011. Jay enjoys public speaking and has given talks at conferences such as RubyConf and OSCON. He’s also the author of Head First Ruby.

We sat down with Jay to learn a bit more about what brought him to Treehouse, his interests outside of teaching, and what you can expect from future Ruby content at Treehouse.

Jay McGavren

When did you first become interested in programming?

My parents enrolled me in a weeklong programming camp when I was 7. I used PRINT and GOTO statements to make a flapping bird animation, among other things. I was enthralled, and I’ve been hooked on programming ever since.

What drew you to Treehouse?

I think everyone needs to know at least some programming, and I like how Treehouse makes it easy to learn. I also love the Ruby programming language, and I’m looking forward to spreading the joy to Treehouse students!

Tell us something about yourself unrelated to programming or technology.

Even though my only writing experience is technical books and writing content for Treehouse, I’d love to publish a novel someday. Science fiction, fantasy, maybe a mixture of both. My favorite authors right now are Ursula LeGuin (the Earthsea books) and Patrick Rothfuss (Kingkiller Chronicle).

What can students look forward to learning about Ruby at Treehouse in the near future?

Treehouse already has a lot of great content on the core Ruby language, so we’re starting with updating all of the Rails content. There will be some Rails 5 coverage and the focus will be on providing a simple, clear path to Rails mastery. I want students to really understand and be empowered by the framework so they excel once they’re out there on their own.

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